Separate is not equal

5/31/1955

On May 17, 1954, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that separate but equal public schools violated the 14th Amendment. On May 31, 1955, Chief Justice Earl Warren issued this decree, ruling how desegregation was to be carried out. The plan directs that schools be desegregated under the control of Federal district judges “with all deliberate speed.”